The Preacher and his Place. By the Rev. David H.
Greer. (R. D. Dickinson.)—This volume contains the "Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching," delivered at Yale last year. Dr. Greer's counsel strikes us as being eminently practical. We have seen lectures on preaching which inevitably suggested an adaptation of the Prince's remark to Imlac : " Enough : you have convinced me that no man can be a preacher." In this case the lecturer has remembered that he is talking not to a class of Elishas wait- ing to catch a prophetic mantle, but to a number of average young men,—average in point of intellect, that is, though probably of more than average earnestness. He is worth stud,y throughout, "hitting the nail on the head" with more flem common accuracy of aim. Here is a shrewd remark : "The preacher who goes week after week to some venerable storehouse of accumulated doctrines, and opens the door, and takes some doctrinal treasure out and gives it forth to the people is a plagiaristic preacher. It is the preaching of things and doctrines which we have taken without buying." Dr. Greer is strong against two sermons in a week from one man, quoting Mr. Beecher's saying that "two sermons on Sunday were like two wads in a pop-gun,—one shoots the other out." This, of course, applies tc the hearers rather than to the preacher. Unfortunately many clergymen—in the country especially—have two almost distinct audiences, and he has to supply the needs of both. The simplest remedy—for in England, anyhow, the clergyman is bound by law to give two sermons—is to divide the available matter between the two. A quarter of an hour given to the working out of one or two main ideas should satisfy the average congregation.
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